Info about anti-union, anti-teacher film, "Won't Back Down", starring Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal
"Won't Back Down" is a production of Walden Media, owned by billionaire investor and conservative Philip Anschutz. Anschutz participates in the Koch brothers' secretive political strategy summits and funds David Koch's Americans for Prosperity group, which backed Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's union-busting proposal and is working to defeat Democratic candidates across the country.
Anschutz bankrolls ALEC and ALEC member groups. In 2010, The Anschutz Foundation, gave ALEC $10,000 and his Union Pacific firm was an ALEC sponsor the following year. The Foundation funded three ALEC members who sat on the ALEC Education Task Force which approved the Parent Trigger Proposal, The Independence Institute, Center for Education Reform, and Pacific Research Institute.
Anschutz has also supported the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which backs legislation designed to cripple unions; the Discovery Institute, which seeks to get creation "science" accepted in public schools; and the Mission America Foundation, whose president considers homosexuality to be a "deviance." He also owns the conservative magazine, the Weekly Standard.
Walden Media was one of the producers of the pro-charter documentary film "Waiting for Superman." This film was criticized by Diane Ravitch as propaganda and as "a powerful weapon on behalf of those championing the 'free market' and privatization."
Film Pushes ALEC Parent Trigger Proposal
Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch | Sept. 19, 2012
Won't Back Down - film reviews and commentary
The Baltimore Sun | Sept. 27, 2012
Film critics pan parent-trigger movie
The Washington Post LOCAL | Sept 27, 2012
VIDEO: "Educating Maggie" - The Real Parents #WontBackDown Against #ALEC
Oversimplifying a complex issue
The Washington Post | Sept. 28, 2012